Journaling in July Challenge Day 4

My blogging friend Sue from SizzlingTowards 60 & Beyond has put out the challenge to bloggers to join in her Journaling in July Challenge challenge. Sue is not a genealogy or family history blogger. Her blog focuses on lifestyle issues at they relate to the midlife experience.  I mainly follow lifestyle bloggers on my other blog Next Phase In Fitness & Life . However I plan to join Sue in the July Challenge on this blog, as I feel their prompts will help to build up a story about myself that will be useful in creating my family story. As I look at the prompts, and how they apply to me and my life, I can see that some will be short posts and others much longer, some posts may even be just bullet points. I’d love you to take a look at Sue’s post for further information about the challenge.

Here in Central Victoria, July is usually one of the coldest months of winter, so as I will probably be spending more time indoors than usual, I plan to spend extra hours on my blogs. This challenge fits in perfectly with that plan.

Message from Sue: Here is the list of topics and I do hope that you will have some fun and enjoy this ‘challenge’ for July. Remember NO PRESSURE, some days you may find inspiration from the prompt and want to write and other days you won’t. I would also love to hear your feedback and perhaps you have some topics you could add to the list going forward.

DAY 4 WRITE ABOUT A SPECIAL MEMORY

A very special memory I have is of my son, Craig, who died in a car accident in 1995, when he was age 18. I’m not sure why this memory came to mind, but perhaps it’s because Craig’s birthday is coming up very soon, and he’s been on my mind more than usual.

In 1992, we participated in the Great Queensland Bike Ride. It was a 10 day organised ride, around Queensland, and camping in tents at night. This ride started and ended in Cairns, and included Port Douglas, the Daintree Rainforest and the Atherton Tablelands. The ride is a cycling holiday, and not a cycling race. Craig decided to come with us at the last minute, and I’m so pleased he did, as it’s the last holiday we had together.

I’ve done thirteen cycling holidays over the years, which shows how much I enjoy them. Seeing the countryside on a bike is a great way to have a holiday. But Craig didn’t really treat it as a holiday. At age 15, and a very keen cyclist, he was on a mission to get from the start to the finish every day, as quickly as he possibly could. He loved cycling and he particularly loved bikes. Arriving at the campsite early meant he was able to watch the riders and their bikes arrive. Every day, he would arrive at the campsite hours before we did, and at night would fill us in on what he learnt from the better riders and the types of bikes they were riding. He specially loved to tell us all about the technicalities of some of the bikes.  Craig became a familiar sight at the campsite early in day as he became friends with many of the faster riders who also arrived early. He would talk to them for hours about their bikes, and they also shared hints and tips with him on how to be a better rider. They would tell us what a funny boy he was and how they loved having him around. Especially, as he seemed to be soaking up as much information as they could give him. He really was in his element, as bikes and cycling were his life as a teenager.

There was a huge bonus for us, in Craig arriving at the camp site early. Every day, he would collect our luggage from the luggage trucks and erect our tents. We didn’t ask him to do it. He loved it. We would ride into camp, usually late in the afternoon, feeling hot and bothered, to find our tent up and our bags waiting inside. Such luxury! We wouldn’t see Craig until he wandered back to see us at dinner time. The dinner conversation was always about some of the amazing bikes he’d seen and the riders he had met.

This memory has been long forgotten until the prompt for day 4 brought it all back to me.

If you feel that this challenge is something that would be useful to your family history, do join me.  Please leave me a comment if you intend to join so that I don’t miss any of your posts.

Do you have a special memory. I’d love to hear about it and promise to reply to all comments